Thomas Malory was born around 1416. His father was John Malory, a landowner in Warwickshire, Leicestershire, and Northamptonshire, who was twice sheriff, five times a Member of the British Parliament, and a Justice of the Peace (Magistrate). John Malory married Philippa Chetwynd and they had several daughters and one son, Thomas. Professor P.J.C. Field in The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Malory (1971) says that almost nothing is known of Malory's early years. As a young man of 23 he was a respectable country landowner with a growing interest in politics, dealing land, witnessing deeds for his neighbors, and acting as a parliamentary elector. By 1441 he had become a knight, and his life so far suggested a degree of political and social ambition. Sir Thomas married Elizabeth Walsh of Wonlip in Leicestershire, who bore him a son, Robert. In 1443 Malory was charged with
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In October 1470, when the Lancastrians returned to power, those of their party who were in London prison, including Malory, were freed. He died six months later and was buried at Greyfriars, Newgate. Although his tombstone was destroyed its inscriptions survives in a sixteenth- century transcript which refers to him as a 'valiant knight of the parish of Monks Kirby in Warwickshire.' In his own words, Malory was a 'knight prisoner' who implored his readers to pray for his deliverance in life and his soul in death. Through his identity is not certain, he is generally believed to have been Sir Thomas Malory who inherited the estates of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire and Winwick in Northamptonshire in 1434, aged to his judicial and social responsibilities as lord of the manor until 1450 when, for unknown reasons, he turned to life of
In October 1470, when the Lancastrians returned to power, those of their party who were in London prison, including Malory, were freed. He died six months later and was buried at Greyfriars, Newgate. Although his tombstone was destroyed its inscriptions survives in a sixteenth- century transcript which refers to him as a 'valiant knight of the parish of Monks Kirby in Warwickshire.' In his own words, Malory was a 'knight prisoner' who implored his readers to pray for his deliverance in life and his soul in death. Through his identity is not certain, he is generally believed to have been Sir Thomas Malory who inherited the estates of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire and Winwick in Northamptonshire in 1434, aged to his judicial and social responsibilities as lord of the manor until 1450 when, for unknown reasons, he turned to life of